Cartoons

There are over 8,000 twentieth-century political cartoons and papers that the Foundation owns today, including those by Carl Giles from Lord Beaverbrook’s years at the Express Newspaper. These are held at the British Cartoon Archive at the University of Kent ensuring they are available for researchers and students.

In 2025 two scholars, funded by the Beaverbrook Foundation, were appointed to the University of Kent Special Collections and Archives, to encourage new research and generate academic outputs (such as illustrated lectures and publications) using the Foundation’s cartoon collection.

The scholars worked with three Beaverbrook Foundation funded student interns to curate an exhibition, ‘Laughter in the long-twentieth century’ which ran from June 2025-January 2026 at the University’s Templeman Gallery.

In addition, the scholars produced two published research papers exploring British history through the lens of cartoons and organised an event at the University of Kent with two speakers, Dr Harriet Earle from the Sheffield Hallam University, and cartoonist and graphic novelist David Shenton, who delivered two fascinating talks about cartoons.

View the Beaverbrook Foundation Collection at the University of Kent